MulticulturalismComments Off on Mexico: Pipeline Explosion, Another mass prison escape, Shootout on U.S. Soil

Dec222010

No one can deny that Mexico is out of control, a nation of outlaws. The Mexican Army has been called “risk averse” by some. That’s another term for being afraid to take the fight to the cartels. Civil servants and elected officials are corrupt and in the pay of these criminal organizations. And President Obama has had a large contingent of USNORTHCOM trainers in place for two years to show the Mexicans how to fight the enemy while across the country instant chaos can break out at any time, anyplace.

(19 Dec. 2010) A pipeline explosion, located in a neighborhood, possibly set off accidentally by oil thieves, including cartel members, killed 27 with 52 injured. The explosion took place in San Martin Texmelucan, in Central Mexico. ” Some 32 houses were lost in the blast, and 80 others were partially damaged.”

There is a continuing problem with the state oil pipeline system. “Fuel theft is rampant in the Pemex network and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fuel have been stolen in recent years.” according to Pemex chief Juan Jose Suarez.

“Oil theft has been a persistent problem for Pemex, and has been on the rise since President Felipe Calderon took office. A Washington Post investigation found that drug cartels were increasingly diversifying into other areas, including oil theft, to the tune of more than $1 billion in a two-year period.”( CNN.com) And they are selling the oil to American companies.

Meanwhile, “nearly 150 inmates escaped Friday from a state prison in the northern Mexico border city of Nuevo Laredo (across from Laredo, Texas), and authorities said the breakout was probably helped by prison employees.” Cartel wars are going on along this stretch of the Mexican-U.S. border and the Mexican Army has had problems maintaining order.

“The public safety department of Tamaulipas state, where the prison is located near the border with Laredo, Texas, said 141 inmates got out through a service entrance used by vehicles, ‘presumably with the assistance of the prison staff.'” (This is the third mass prison escape in Mexico near the U.S. border over the last few months with the same M.O., being aided by the prison staff, including the prison’s director.)

This is the area where the Zetas and Gulf cartels have been in combat, occasionally joined by the Mexican military. The recent escaped prisoners were in prison or being held for trial for “crimes like theft, assault and other state offenses, while 58 were being held on federal charges, which include weapons possession and drug trafficking.” If they can make it across the border they can be safe in sanctuary cities like San Francisco and San Diego. It’s frightening but every word in that last sentence is true.

(15 Dec, 2010) “A U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed during an exchange of gunfire between agents and several armed individuals near the Arizona-Mexico border… Brian A. Terry was shot to death Tuesday night north of the Arizona-Mexico border while trying to catch ‘bandits’ who target illegal immigrants.”

The shootout took place north of Nogales, 20 miles into the United States. One of the bandits, Manuel Arianes, aka Manuel Arellanes Osorio, was wounded, four suspects are in custody and they are looking for another. The gun fight involved six border agents and five bandits. One of the agents had an m4 rifle and another had a gun that shot bean bags, according to reports. (You don’t shoot bean bags at a gun fight.) See KPHO coverage.

Arianes, 34, and a Mexican national (illegal alien), was convicted in Maricopa County Superior Court in 2006 for aggravated assault on a police officer, and had been deported to Mexico twice, according to sources familiar with his case.”

Janet Napolitano, claiming to be secretary of homeland security, said, “We will honor his memory by remaining resolute and committed to the serious task of securing our nation’s borders.” Once again, the border would be secure if you had enough qualified people with adequate surveillance systems, plus sufficiently armed response forces and layered defense zones with rules of engagement that insure success… but that isn’t what Obama is after. Nor is success in securing the border the goal of any future American president.

We kept the official ports of entry open, as well as the illegal crossing points, to the flow of people and commerce during the Swine flu problem. And open borders is the “written in stone” policy no matter what happens to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. NAFTA institutions and regional agreements now govern the continent in areas such as the flu pandemic, USNORTHCOM (tri-national police and continental defense for North America), and the appointed NAFTA trade tribunal, which can rule on laws and regulations at all levels in the United States. That could be on planning and zoning at the city level or any law that hinders a foreign corporation from earning a profit under the rules of this continental trade agreement. If the U.S. loses a case, the government must pay the offended corporation for lost or predicted loss of profits.

So something like Mexico behaving as if their nation is an insane asylum, run by the inmates, a real life Twilight Zone, won’t be enough to stop the merger of North America and the free flow of people and commerce across the continent. Get ready my fellow Americans, especially those of you under 40.

If you want to learn about trade tribunals and trade agreements, see NAFTA’s Threat to Sovereignty and Democracy, NAFTA Chapter 11.